"I went as fast as I could and ran up the stairs to the unit to see him again," she said.

Born on March 13, 2007, Jack Anthony Yandl spent 101 days in the hospital. He didn't go home to Frankenmuth until June 21, the day he was supposed to come into the world. Instead, he arrived at 26 weeks gestation, weighing 2 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring 14 inches long. Yandl fit her wedding ring on his arm to the elbow.

David A. Sommers | The Saginaw NewsCarrie Yandl, 30, formerly of Frankenmuth, holds her son, Jack, 1, who was born three months premature. Yandl now lives in Rockford with her husband, Geoff, and daughter, Grace.

"Now, he's gigantic, 22 pounds," Yandl said. "I can't get over it. He is crawling and climbing stairs. I'm going to carry him in a backpack for this year's walk because I should have been carrying him inside last year."

Yandl and her husband, Geoff, who just moved from Frankenmuth to Rockford on the west side of the state, also have a 2-year-old daughter, Grace. Yandl, 30, still works as a commercial underwriter for Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance, telecommuting from her new house and coming to the office twice a month.

Their family team for this year's March for Babies fundraiser Saturday, April 26, in Bay City will include Sharon Ballard-Stockwell of Birch Run, a neonatal intensive care nurse who cared for Jack during much of his stay. The tiny babies require 24-hour monitoring, feeding and treatment.

"It's funny how soon you forget the hum of the ventilator and the alarms," Yandl said.

Ballard-Stockwell has worked at Covenant for five years and attended Jack's first birthday party this month as well as his homecoming celebration last year.

"He was born on a Tuesday and I came on Friday night and fell in love with him," she said. "I sat with him and prayed many nights."

Families of intensive care "graduates" often send photos as the babies grow and staff love to see the progress, though nurses don't usually stay in such close contact, Ballard-Stockwell said.

Yandl and her husband made a slide show telling Jack's story in images and sent a copy to the hospital.

The little boy spent more than half his days in the unit with a ventilator helping him breathe. He received a dozen blood transfusions to combat anemia. He also had jaundice and kidney problems. In April, doctors had to restart his heart when he started "shutting down," Yandl said.

"They couldn't figure out exactly what happened, but we knew something was wrong. His kidneys weren't working and he had a clog in his ventilator tube. Then something brought him back. He came back on Easter."

By June, he could breathe on his own and was breastfeeding and the family was ready to bring him home, she said.

"It felt like we would never get there, but by then I didn't think of him as a preemie anymore. He was almost 6 pounds. He wasn't on any medications and didn't have any surgeries. He's nothing short of a miracle."

He's had follow-ups to check his eyes and ears and wore a helmet to correct a flat spot on the back of his head, but shows no long-term problems. Yandl believes she went into labor prematurely because Jack's umbilical cord wasn't correctly attached to the placenta. Doctors performed a Caesarean section.

"I learned a lot about patience and trust to let someone else watch over my baby. It's so hard to walk out that door and leave your child. We could not have gotten through this if not for all those who prayed for us, the complete strangers who became our friends."

Yandl said she'd like to buy two crosses for the nurseries Jack lived in at the unit. She plans to take him for a visit this summer.

Donna Bierlein of Reese, a coworker at Frankenmuth Mutual, also had a son born very early 22 years ago. She and Yandl attended another March of Dimes fundraiser in Flint. Her son, Travis, was born at 25 weeks at Covenant, weighing just 1 pound, 12 ounces. He now attends Kettering University in Flint.

"The nurses and doctors are so great. We went back to visit several times and they remembered Travis."

Heather L. and Tony Brey of Essexville started walking for March of Dimes after the birth of their son, Owen, who turns 4 next month. He was born in April 2004 at Covenant and spent three months in the unit. He weighed just 1 pound, 8 ounces.

Heather Brey had developed HELLP syndrome, a serious complication of high blood pressure during pregnancy that results in hemolytic anemia, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count. Delivery of the baby is the only cure.

Today, Owen is small for his age but is a "smart little cookie with a personality to match," his mom said. He received physical and occupational therapy and caught up over time.

"Walking is our way of celebrating the fact he is here and so healthy and how blessed we are," she said. "We continue to walk for more research, so other families won't have to go through this, so other kids won't have the same fight.

"It's also our way of saying thank you to the NICU and March of Dimes to not let this epidemic go without notice and to work to prevent it."

Heather Brey is a teacher at Rittmueller Middle School in Frankenmuth. Last year, she led fundraising at the school and brought a busload of 50 walkers to the Bay City event as part of Team Owenator. Between her family team and the school, they raised more than $6,000, she said.

She is on maternity leave now caring for her new son, Ryan, who was born two months ago at full term. Her husband teaches at Garber High School in Bay City, which also has had a team.

"It's nice to have the youth there to teach them to give back and that this is everyone's problem," she said.